Audi A1 in India? Not just yet!

Dailybhaskar|Dec 06, 2012, 12:17PM IST

New Delhi: India's premier luxury car maker Audi is making quiet the merry in the country. After hitting its annual sales targets this year, it is well on the way to becoming the nation's biggest luxury car maker by 2015. They have sold 8000 units for the year already, and are looking at a revised target of 8600+ with the 2 months to go. The unique part of the sucess story however, is that though competitors seem largely inclined towards bringing in smaller hatchbacks to popularise the brand, Audi seems to be thinking otherwise. In fact, they have rejeced the idea of bringing in the Audi A1 in India, where it feels the car will dilute their brand. Hence, a bit of a diappointment for Indian Audi fans.

One can always be apprehensive for Audi, as the sales could be affected in the coming year as competitors Mercedes and BMW continue to bring their hatchbacks such as the A class and 1 series in the country, whereass Audi has taken the opposite route. In such a scenario, buyers would generally be inclined to go for the other brands as a result. But they seem to be defensive about their brand being diluted.

On being probed, the Audi India head, Michael Perschke said, "Our top down model strategy has been successful in India so far. We have successfully sold the top-end A8 stretched sedan and other high-end models to the Indian customers." He further went on to add, "But we have no plans to dilute our brand by launching smaller cars like the Audi A1 or similar models, even as the competition garners volumes with such offerings." So, in short, Audi fans in the country indeed have something to be disappointed about, atleast for now.